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Wear
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A combined CFD/experimental methodology for erosion prediction

A. Mansouri n, H. Arabnejad, S.A. Shirazi, B.S. McLaury
Erosion/Corrosion Research Center, Mechanical Engineering Department, The University of Tulsa, 800 S. Tucker Dr., Tulsa, OK 74104, USA

art ic l e i nf o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 16 September 2014
Received in revised form
22 November 2014
Accepted 27 November 2014

The prediction of erosion damage caused by solid particles within ow lines is crucial for many
industries. In most erosion modeling approaches, empirical erosion equations are commonly used to
relate particle impact information to erosion magnitude. These equations are usually generated from
jet impingement testing in air, since the particle impact speed and angle are assumed not to deviate
from conditions in the jet. However, in slurry ows, a wide range of particle impact angles and speeds
are produced on the target surface. In this work combining CFD simulation results with experimental
data obtained from a normal slurry jet test, an erosion equation has been developed. In this
methodology, a computational uid dynamics (CFD) simulation is used to characterize the particle
impact speed, angle and frequency at specic locations on the specimen. Then, the particle impact data
are related to the measured erosion depth to achieve an erosion equation from submerged testing. The
erosion equation has been validated for oblique impingement congurations and it has been shown
that, the equation is well suited for various test conditions and it can successfully predict the local
erosion depth.
Furthermore, a series of dry impinging jet tests for normal and oblique congurations has been
performed. Utilizing a particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique, the slip velocity between the gas
and sand particles has been determined. In order to gain a better understanding of the erosion pattern,
local erosion depth has been measured using a 3D surface prolometer. The effect of gas velocity and
impingement angle on erosion prole has also been investigated.
& 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
CFD
Erosion equation
Gassolid erosion
Slurry erosion
PIV technique

1. Introduction
In many engineering applications, as a result of repetitive impacts
of solid particles transported by uid ow, material is gradually
removed from inside walls of piping and equipment. This type of
wear is generally called erosion, or more specically solid particle
erosion. The erosion phenomenon is important in many engineering
applications including the oil and gas industry, gas turbines, boilers,
heat exchangers, uidized beds and aircrafts operating at low
altitudes. In recent years, erosion problems in the oil and gas industry
have drawn signicant attention amongst researchers, because oil
and gas produced from offshore reservoirs may contain a considerable amount of ne sand particles which can lead to severe damage
on many industrial components such as pumps, pipes, plugged tees,
valves and elbows. This damage can cause leakage and abrupt failure
of equipment without prior warning, and can result in expensive
repairs and loss of production time. Therefore, it is essential to
precisely predict the erosion rate and identify locations which are

Corresponding author. Tel.: 1 918 849 5001.

E-mail address: amir-mansouri@utulsa.edu (A. Mansouri).

most at risk. Developing a mathematical expression to predict the

wear rate is very challenging, since there are many parameters that
need to be taken into account. It is well established that among all
the parameters, particle impact speed, particle impact angle, particle
properties (size, shape, hardness and density) and target material
hardness play a signicant role in the erosion process. Finnie [1]
derived a theoretical erosion equation and proposed that the erosion
mechanism in ductile material is due to a cutting process while the
mechanism is cracking in brittle material. Thereafter, a wide variety
of erosion equations have been developed which are either purely
theoretical or empirical based. Bitter [2], Neilson and Gilchrist [3],
McLaury et al. [4], Huang et al. [5], Oka et al. [6] and Zhang et al. [7]
are among the erosion equations most commonly reported in papers.
Meng and Ludema [8] examined a large number of erosion equations
mentioned in the literature and concluded that all the erosion
equations are only valid for specic conditions and are not suitable
for general use. They also found that empirical equations within the
range of their test conditions are much more applicable than
theoretical ones. Empirical erosion equations are traditionally
obtained as a result of a series of tests for normal and oblique
impingement of sand particles on a substrate [6,7]. These tests are
performed under dry conditions (sand particles in air) where Stokes

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wear.2014.11.025
0043-1648/& 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article as: A. Mansouri, et al., A combined CFD/experimental methodology for erosion prediction, Wear (2014), http://dx.
doi.org/10.1016/j.wear.2014.11.025i